Protecting our Youth Baseball Players

Sexual Abuse and Molestation Prevention Policy for Toluca Baseball

Purpose:  It is the purpose and intent of Toluca Baseball to provide a safe, secure environment for our youth baseball players.

Goal:  Our goal is to protect our youth baseball players from sexual abuse, child molestation or any types of inappropriate sexual behavior by volunteers in our program and to protect our volunteers from false accusations.

Definition of Child Sexual Abuse:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states “Child sexual abuse involves any sexual activity with a child where consent is not or cannot be given. This includes sexual contact that is accomplished by force or threat of force, regardless of the age of the participants, and all sexual contact between an adult and a child, regardless of whether there is deception or the child understands the sexual nature of the activity. Sexual contact between an older and a younger child also can be abusive if there is a significant disparity in age, development, or size, rendering the younger child incapable of giving informed consent. The sexually abusive acts may include sexual penetration, sexual touching, or non-contact sexual acts such as exposure or voyeurism.”
For more information, visit CDC at https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/preventingchildsexualabuse-a.pdf

This policy and procedure set forth will apply to all people who give supervision or have custody of children or who have opportunity to have contact with children in our baseball league activities.

This addresses four areas that are critical for the protection of the children, umpires, volunteers and board members: selection process, protection policy, reporting procedures and responses to allegations.

1. Selection Process:

A. Umpires

All umpires current or new must register with Toluca Baseball and undergo a background records check.

B. Volunteers

Anyone, including board members, who is not paid by Toluca Baseball on full-time or part-time basis, and is serving in any position involving the supervision or custody of children must register with Toluca Baseball and undergo a background records check.

2. Protection Policy:

A. Two Adults or Three Person Rule

Two adults must be present, or nearby at all times with children during any Toluca Baseball activities (games, practices, etc). Reasonable efforts will be made to assure that one adult is not left alone with one child. Spouses or partners volunteering together will be typically considered as one adult for purposes of this policy.

Three Person Rule prohibits one adult from being alone with one child. A second adult must be present, or there must be two or more children with an adult.

3. Reporting Procedures

Known or suspected child sexual abuse or child molestation must be reported immediately to a Toluca Baseball board member and Law Enforcement.  Reporting abuse can precipitate severe consequences to a family, so it must never be done casually or thoughtlessly, and certainly not for malicious purposes.  At the same time, falling to report abuse can have severe consequences to the child at risk.

4. Responses to Allegations

All allegations will be taken seriously and a Toluca Baseball board member will take appropriate action in accordance with the laws of the State of California and insurance policy requirements based upon advice of legal counsel.

updated March 22, 2021